and, like its namesake in England, is the centre of the coal trade. Paramatta and Bathurst are the only other towns with upwards of five thousand inhabitants.

9. Victoria is the smallest but the most populous and the most wealthy colony in Australia. In size it is but little less than Great Britain, whilst its population is less than one million.

10. The surface of this colony, except in the northwest, is mountainous. A broad mountainous district, consisting of numerous chains, spreads through the centre from east to west. The highest summits are in the Australian Alps in the east-Mount Bogong (6,508 feet) is the highest peak in the colony. Westward of the Alps is the Dividing Range (so called, as in New South Wales, because it divides the country into two parts), and further west again are the Pyrenees and Grampians.

11. There is no regular coast range, but many smaller ranges of mountains spread over nearly all the country south of the main system. Many of the mountain peaks of Victoria, especially in the west, are extinct volcanoes. Some of the cones and craters are still very perfect.

12. The north-west consists of the vast plains of the Wimmera district, covering an area of more than 20,000 square miles. They are chiefly dry sandy plains with thin grass. In some parts there are extensive swamps, and in others broad belts of "myall scrub." The whole district is liable to severe droughts.

13. The central mountain region forms the great water-parting. The streams running north join the Murray, which for over 600 miles forms the northern boundary of the colony, or are lost in the sandy plains and salt lagoons. The streams flowing south are devastating torrents in the rainy season; but during the summer heats they dwindle down to small streams or chains of pools of stagnant water. The Goulbourn and Loddon are the chief northern rivers; the Glenelg is the longest flowing south.

14. There are numerous lakes in Victoria, but many of them, as in New South Wales, are shallow and salt. Lakes are also formed in many of the craters of the

extinct volcanoes.

Lake Hindmarsh, in Wimmera, is a

salt lake covering 25,000 acres.

15. The valleys and southern plains of this colony are exceedingly fertile, and large crops of wheat, oats, and potatoes are grown; and the sides of many of the hills towards the east are covered with magnificent forests, containing some of the largest trees in the world.

16. Wool and gold are the two chief exports of Victoria. Of the former, about six and a half million pounds' worth are sent to Great Britain every year. The yield of gold is decreasing, but from its discovery in 1851 to the end of the year 1878 gold was raised to the value of over £190,000,000. The value of the yield in 1878 was £3,000,000. Other exports of less importance are tallow, hides, wheat, and preserved meat. The total exports in 1879, excluding gold, were of the value of £7,500,000, and the imports £5,500,000.

17. Melbourne, the capital, is a city of 200,000 inhabitants, to which must be added 50,000 for the suburbs. It is a city of forty years' growth. Ballarat, the great gold-field city, ranks next to Melbourne. It has a population of 45,000. Sandhurst, formerly called Bendigo, the centre of a mining district, and Geelong, a sea-port, are the next most important towns.

LESSON LXXVI.

AUSTRALIA SOUTH AUSTRALIA, WEST AUSTRALIA,
QUEENSLAND.

1. The name South Australia is misleading, for the colony includes a slice of territory running through the centre of Australia from the north to the south, a distance of about 2,000 miles, and having an average width of 700 miles. Of this vast area of over 900,000 square miles only one-tenth part is settled. Its population is about a quarter of a million.

2. There is no great dividing range of mountains in

South Australia separating the country into well-marked regions, and there are no great river valleys, and the rivers are of little importance. There are several low ranges of mountains in the southern part, and low hills form a very broken chain throughout the whole length of the colony. There are many large lakes, but the country is usually so dry that these are liable to become mere muddy swamps. Lake Gardner is an immense salt lake in a desert region, and Lakes Eyre and Amadeus are sometimes immense salt lakes, and at other times plains of saline mud. There are many rich plains of fertile lands, and on many of the mountains fine gumtrees grow, but millions of acres are arid plains and scrub.

3. South Australia has a very hot climate. There are no mountains, as in the other colonies, running in a direction to check the hot winds of the interior, and the country suffers from excessive drought during the summer months.

4. The chief productions of South Australia are wheat, copper, and wool. The climate of the south of the colony is well suited for the growth of wheat, and wheat is grown in sufficient quantity to supply the wants of the neighbouring colonies, and to export to England to the value of nearly half a million sterling. Copper is to South Australia what gold is to Victoria, and coal to New South Wales. The yearly export is valued at about half a million.

5. Sheep form an important source of wealth, as in the neighbouring colonies, but sheep farmers here are liable to great losses from the droughts which so frequently visit the colony. During some of these droughts not a blade of grass appears after a certain time, and the sheep are starved.

6. In some places sheep feed and thrive on a low bush called the salt-bush, and this feed rarely fails even in the driest seasons; but water has to be obtained from deep wells.

7. Adelaide, the capital, is situated in a plain near the small river Torrens, which is dried up during a great

S

part of the year. Including the suburbs, it contains a population of 50,000. All the other towns are very

small.

8. Western Australia is the largest in area but the poorest in resources, and the least promising of all the Australian colonies. Its area is about one million square miles, but only a very small portion is settled. The settled portion is confined to the south-west corner-a district about 320 miles long, and about 160 miles wide e; but there are also a few very small settlements on some of the small rivers farther north. Its total population is less than 30,000.

9. A range of low mountains runs north and south parallel with the coast line in the settled district. Its rivers are numerous, and some of them of considerable size, but they are not of much value, owing to want of water during a great part of the year. The Swan river is the chief.

10. The soil is principally sandy, with fertile spots here and there; and a large part of the country is covered with scrubs and bush and forest. One kind of Eucalyptus, the wood of which resembles mahogany, is useful as timber. Much of the scrub is poisonous, and sheep farming, therefore, is not extensive. The climate is hot and dry, but healthy.

11. As yet no minerals of importance have been discovered, and the chief exports are wool, sandal-wood, and pearl shells; the latter are found in great quantities on the north-western shores. The chief towns are Perth and Freemantle; the former has about 6,000 inhabitants.

12. Queensland occupies all the north-east of Australia, and covers an area of 670,000 square miles-eleven times the size of England and Wales. The population is mixed, consisting of four distinct races— -the white, or Europeans and Americans; the yellow, or Chinese; the brown, or immigrants from the Polynesian islands; and the black natives. The total number of inhabitants amounts to about 200,000, of whom nine-tenths are whites.

13. Like its sister-colony Victoria, or its parentcolony New South Wales, Queensland has a great region